Act 40 Arnolfini, Bristol

Act 40 took place at 7.30pm on Friday 17 February 2012 at Arnolfini, Bristol with 27 Co-Recitors who memorised and recited Articles inAmharic, Arabic, British Sign Language, Dinka, English, Farsi, French, German, Irish Gaelige, Italian, Kurdish, Norwegian, Punjabi, Romanian and Spanish. There is a great piece of writing about Act 40 at leadinmypencil.blogspot, on MISFITS website by Eve Houston and an extraordinary rap by Deasy Bamford below reflecting on the experience.

Many thanks to all the Co-Recitors for such a rich and vibrant recitation and for the vital conversations that took place beforehand; special thanks to Mel Scaffold for her unstinting energy, insight, enthusiasm and meticulous care in producing Act 40; to Sarah Warden for initiating and laying the groundwork; to Christine Atha and all at Arnolfini who made Act 40 possible; to Bristol Refugee Rights and Misfits Theatre; to everyone who came and joined us and to there’s lead in my pencil blog for such an insightful account of the recitation.

Untitled (detail) 2012, Rachel Beard, Work in Progress. Pencil, gesso and newspaper on board. Thanks to Rachel Beard for sending this image of a piece she is currently working on and inscribing the text of the UDHR into. See Rachel’s post below for more info about her work.

38 Responses to “ Act 40 Arnolfini, Bristol ”

Olive on 09/03/2012 at 11:27

Ah, brilliant Deasy,
Cheers, lLive

Olive on 22/02/2012 at 13:12

Hello Monica & all co-recitors no.40,

First of all, Deasy I really like your image of us as ‘dandelion seeds’ flying in the wind. I’ve been trying to put into words my response to being part of Monica’s 60 Acts of Memory.
To Monica, I say, how lucky we are to have met such a respectful human being and Artist. To everyone else I say(inspired by Deasy) ‘The answer my friends is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind’(B.Dylan)
Monica, Go raibh míle maith agat (Thanks a million)

hi all,
have just uploaded a new jpeg of Rachel’s image so hope everyone can see it ok now

Marta Pacini on 18/02/2012 at 09:56

Hello all, just to say THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU, grazie, merci, gracias etc., yesterday was MAGIC. Thank you Monica for this project, the world needs people like you. Genuinely proud to have been part of this.

thanks to you Marta and to everyone! it was a fantastic recitation. congratulations to you all and thank you: thank you – your memorising was outstanding. I’ll update the article list tomorrow with everyone’s names and all the languages and will be in touch soon with photographs.

I just wanted to say how excited I am about tomorrow, and how much I’m looking forward to seeing everyone who’s taking part.

We’re still getting people sending in information about which articles they want to recite, and I’ve had many many emails from wellwishers and people saying they’re hoping to attend.

We’ve had a large version of the Memory poster printed – it’s just arrived in the office and we’ll put it up tomorrow morning.

I hope your memorising is going well. As Monica said, don’t worry about being word perfect, it’s about the effort of trying to remember. Your presence, and the commitment you’re making to the work, are the important things.

dear all,
am very much looking forward to friday and to hearing everyone’s articles- the list looks great!
hope you are all doing ok and your memorising is going alright. – your recitation doesn’t have to be word perfect, it’s making the attempt to remember and speak the article under pressure that matters.. even though i’ve done this so many times i still make loads of mistakes…as you will see…

Dear Kamina,
completely understand, Article 7 always makes me hold my breath and compels a careful think to disentangle what it is saying.
2 main points are being made so i try to manage it by reminding myself that they are:
sentence 1 = is about everyone being equal before the law WITHOUT any discrimination.
sentence 2 = is about everyone having equal Protection by the law AGAINST discrimination
so i break it down and learn it like this:

*
All are equal before the law /
and are entitled / without any discrimination/
to equal protection by the law.

*All are entitled /
to equal protection against any discrimination/
in violation of this Declaration/
and against any incitement to such violation.
?
it is a difficult one, so please do find your own way to learn and speak it- it’s the only way.
the main thing is to try and stay as close as you can so that your interpretation is still within the range of all the translations into other languages.

see how it goes.. best wishes to you

Rachel Beard on 09/02/2012 at 18:37

Dear Monica

I am so flattered that you wanted to share my piece of work! Thank you.

Something about it:
I am an artist (student) and my recent work has been inspired by the global Occupy Movement. A movement of the 99% to address the imbalance of power held by the ’1%’.
Getting involved in Act of Memory seemed to fit well with this, and it is a personal challenge for me, as my work is far from being performance based.
I was moved by Monica’s story of how this project came about, and that she writes the whole declaration out before each performance.
This inspired me to write it out for myself, and this has now been incorporated into my current work, as in the image above.
Layers of newspaper have been ‘whitewashed’ over, reflecting the whitewashing of the propaganda that the ‘news’ often contains. Newspapers also being a symbol of that powerful 1%.
Writing the UDHR over this is a gesture to redress that imbalance.

Writing out the UDHR, which I’ve done a few times now, has been an interesting activity in itself. I have noticed how my attention wanders, and I’ve found myself paying little or no attention to the meanings of the words and phrases.

dear rachel,
thank you very much for contributing your image and your thoughts on the process of transcribing / memorising the UDHR document.
re:
‘Writing out the UDHR, which I’ve done a few times now, has been an interesting activity in itself. I have noticed how my attention wanders, and I’ve found myself paying little or no attention to the meanings of the words and phrases.’

There is a sentence towards the end of the Preamble that calls on ” every individual and every organ of society, keeping this declaration constantly in mind…” what a challenge. It’s such a demand to just do that- keep the UDHR in mind , let alone implement it and turn it into action…

Rachel Beard on 07/02/2012 at 18:09

Hi Monica, Mel and all,

I was at the workshop last month, and was deeply moved by Monicas story behind this project and of reciting this.

I will recite Article 13. This is in support of those in Palestine – Gaza and the West Bank, and those friends of mine who have been involved in the attempts in the last few years to break the siege by boat as the Free Gaza Movement.

dear all,
following all the discussions we’ve been having about posters i decided to make one to mark the milestone of Act 40 of Anniversary — an act of memory.
If you like it you can download and print it as an either an A3 or A0 sized poster here:http://www.actsofmemory.net/thedeclaration/
and if you’d like a different A size, please let me know.

Dear Kamina,
thank you very much for your mail- great to hear about the Amnesty Poster- do you have any idea where it was sourced from? it would be great to add a link to that here or to have an image of it. Thanks also for your choice of Articles. There was a very moving interview with Doreen Lawrence in last weekend’s Guardian. also details of how to donate to the Stephen Lawrence Trust which is currently in a “worrying financial situation”. If anyone would like to know more here is the link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jan/27/doreen-lawrence-no-more-give

am finding it very inspiring watching Act 40′s list grow and take on it’s unique shape as it reflects everyone’s thoughts and concerns.
best wishes, monica

Hi Kamina,
Thanks for this link to Amnesty’s education resources. The link for the UDHR text in English and the 380 plus traslations is the one used for the recitations; together with Signed and Plain English versions it can also be found from here:http://www.actsofmemory.net/thedeclaration/
Amnesty and the UN have commissioned many different posters over the years so definitely worth continuing to find out more about the one you saw especially if you thought it was particularily effective.
(e.g. here’s a photo of one in Scarborough Library which the UN commissioned for the 6oth anniversary of the Declaration in 2008: http://www.actsofmemory.net/recitations-to-date/act-35-crescent-arts-scarborough-library/). Another version, published by the UN for the 40th anniversary, was spotted in a second hand shop in York a few weeks ago- apparently it used to hang in a library in York.
best for now, monica

am thinking that this page could do with an image which is local and relevant to Bristol ? e.g on the The Scarborough page there is a photo of a poster of the UDHR which was installed by the Local UNA UK Group in Scarborough Town Hall on the 60th Anniversaryof the UDHR (http://www.una.org.uk/nationsregionsbranches.html).

So please feel free to send any images you think would work well here too.
Claire-Lise brought a very beautiful edition of the UDHR to the workshop which was published to mark the 40th anniversary in 1988. It is illustrated by the Belgian Illustrator Folon and published in Russian, French, Arabic, English, French, Mandarin and Spanish – some of the pages can be seen here:http://cgi.ebay.fr/Declaration-droits-Homme-Multilingue-FOLON-illustre-/370491120907

The illustrations by the artist Folon are really beautiful. Thanks Monica. I have been given a loan of a handmade banner, made by some members of the Bristol Refugee Rights(BRR) members for Human Rights Day, Dec. 10th 2011. I will try to take some pics of it to include here. It got a bit damaged in storage, so I’m doing a bit of mending work on it, as I try to memorize my lines of Art.26. Slán / Goodbye(phonetics=Slawn)Olive

Olive Bridget Morgan on 27/01/2012 at 15:03

Hello Monica & recitors,

I’ve decided to recite Article 26. It has three parts so I will do the first one in Irish(Gaelic) and no. 2 & 3 in English. Article 26 is about ‘Education’ and its close to my heart as I’ve been involved mostly in Arts Education all my life. I had some wonderful mentors who were teachers when I was at school and college. Also I have so much gratitude towards my parents who did everything they could to get me and my 6 siblings an amazing education. They had to leave school at 14 years old as there was no free secondary education for them.
Strange to say, but it was one of my worst teachers who taught me so much. Because of her attempts to bully me as a teenager, I developed the courage to speak out whenever I’ve seen injustice anywhere in life. Now that has made me quite unpopular at times but the older I get the easier it gets and the less I have to lose. Don’t be scared folks as I’m mostly very well behaved and easy going! Cheers & Slán(goodbye). Olive

Olive B. Morgan on 05/02/2012 at 21:19

Hello Monica,

How do I send an image to you please? e.g. a jpeg image. Will I send it to Mel’s email address? I’m working on an art idea related to Article 26.
Slán(slawn) Olive

hi olive, if you click ‘contact’ in the black bar above it takes you to an email address that you can send the jpeg to as an atachment.
looking forward to seeing your image!

Luana on 26/01/2012 at 13:22

Hello all,

I decided to do Article 19 in Romanian, my native language. I was pleased to find that the article referring to freedom of opinion and expression, which is what I wanted to do, is, in fact, my date of birth, the 19th. I chose this article as it relates to current events back home, there are protests in all major cities, against the president and its strict measures that did nothing for the progress of the country, but only assured an excessive amount of wealth for the ‘powerful’. Although his main promise was to eliminate corruption, this is still blossoming. After 20 odd years since 1989, the Romanians are trying again to change something and although passive so far, the public pressure is increasing everyday, it is now the 14th day of protests. As a young citizen born just after the Revolution, I always regretted that I couldn’t be there when history was made and, now, yet again, when I am at the top of my potential, I cannot be there. My reading of the article is in sign of support for Romanians in the cold at home and to all Romanians around the world. :)

dear Luana, Thank you very much. it’s interesting that your message and Mia’s (below), choosing Article 19 in your respective languages, more or less arrived together. just had a look on Article 19′s website, they have a base in Central Europe and some information/ campaign news pages here which might be of interest? http://www.article19.org/pages/en/europe-central-asia.html
there are also many papers and reports about issues of Freedom of Speech in Romania on their site here:http://www.article19.org/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=romania+freedom+of+speech
i think you are going to be the first recitor to contribute to the project in Romanian , it will be great to hear Article 19 being spoken out loud in your language.

Mia on 26/01/2012 at 12:59

Hello all!

I would like to recite Article 19, in English. As an ex-pat American I find the concept of Freedom of Speech in different areas of the world to be fascinating as I watch my own country struggle with SOPA, PIPA and the like.

The idea that one day I might not be allowed to speak my own mind is a terrifying one, and as tighter controls on piracy and copyright are imposed, censorship will follow.

hi all,
In the workshop last week we touched on the differences between the UDHR, later Conventions, the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and current debate about Tory Party proposals to overturn the UK Human Rights Act.
If anyone wants to follow this up there is a piece by Francesca Klug in yesterday’s Guardian commenting on Cameron’s recent speech about their proposals:.http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/25/human-rights-cameron-europe
Francesca Klug is a Professor at the Centre for the Study of Human Rights at LSEhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/humanRights/home.aspx
(one of the you tube videos we looked at in the worksho, Act 19, was produced with the LSE centre in 2010).

Olive on 25/01/2012 at 21:31

Hello Monica & everyone,

I too, was at the workshop last week and I would like to recite an Article of the UDHR in Irish(Gaelic). I’m not a fluent speaker but it is officially my first language and I really like it as it is so much a part of Ireland’s history & culture. I’m almost sure which article I will recite and I suppose the sooner I make up my mind the better as one of my article choices is a long one!
Also during the last week I’ve had some very interesting conversations and questions asked about the UDHR and Monica’s ‘Act of Memory’, and I discovered that one English friend was given a copy of it as a child when she was a member of Woodcraft Kids.
There has also been an interesting development. I work as a volunteer with refugee women and some of the refugee women have decided to do a reading of the 30 UDHR Articles in the near future. The reading will include several languages such as Somali, Arabic(Libya)(Sudan)(Morroco), Farsi(Iran), Eritrean, Swedish, Irish, Kurdish(Iraq). There has been an amazing interest in the UDHR document in itself.

I’ll be back soon with my confirmed Article for recitation asap.
Cheers, Olive

Hello Olive,
I’m intrigued to know which Article you are going to choose. You can hear previous recitors in Gaelic on the you tube channel e.g. Paddy O’Keefe reciting Article 3 in Act 07 and Act 09, and as Act 27 took place in Galway Gaelic was well represented.

It’s great to hear about the work you are doing and that the multi-lingual reading you mention might take place. it is exactly the kind of thing that i hope the project will help to prompt and catalyse. please keep us posted on how this goes. It would also be great if any of the women you are working with wanted to take part in Act 40 at Arnolfini too.

Platforma is a national Arts and Refugees network – so your group might be interested to know about it? They are also very keen for different groups and individuals around the country to connect with them nationally and regionally:http://www.platforma.org.uk
best for now and look forward to hearing more, monica

acts of memory dvd

acts of memory 2005-2010
selected video and stills from solo, collective and multi-lingual recitations 2005-2010. A Double DVD published by Live Art Development Agency and available from their online shop